70 years and two days ago, The Fellowship of the Ring, first part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was published. To mark the occasion, Bayliss Rare Books has launched ‘the finest collection to come to the market in decades’, with first editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (ranging from £30,000 to just under £80,000), as well as various opinionated letters written by J. R. R. Tolkien to his friends, publisher and the original theatre director of The Hobbit. In these, he discusses theories of language, his thoughts on Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes (‘quite a sniff of priggery about these two precious gents’) and how he named the home of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, Bag-End, after his aunt’s house in Worcestershire.
‘I am well aware that dwarfs is the correct modern English plural of dwarf; but I intend to use dwarves for good reasons of my own,’ wrote Tolkien to his publisher Allen & Unwin on July 22, 1953. ‘I take it harder that my elven and elven-should be replaced, though not consistently, by the detestable Spenserian elfin, which it was specially designed to avoid… I never have voluntarily used, and do not intend (if I can avoid it) to be represented as using the form farther for the older further, and should be grateful if the further of my copy could be left alone… I think it would be much better, and save time and annoyance in the end, if it was assumed that all apparent oddities and idiosyncrasies… were intentional.’ The letters range in price from £15,000 to £40,000.
‘Tolkien is known for being fastidious with language and here we find him incredibly disgruntled… It is considered a holy-grail letter for collectors,’ explains Oliver Bayliss, adding that, when the letter criticising Conan Doyle was sold in 2002, ‘the cataloguers didn’t seem to notice Tolkien talks about Holmes or Conan Doyle. It changes a letter on language, grammar and verbs… into something completely different. A next-level letter, potentially the only one of its kind to exist.
'The last time such a major cache of Tolkien material came to market was more than 20 years ago,' adds Mr Bayliss. 'All the letters are nothing short of fascinating.’
Visit www.baylissbooks.co.uk to see more details about the sale.
Credit: The Tolkien Estate 1976 / The Tolkien Trust 1999 / Bodleian Libraries, Oxford
With love from Father Christmas: J.R.R. Tolkien's enchanting Christmas letters to his children
For nearly a quarter of a century, J. R. R. Tolkien sent his children elaborate letters and pictures from the
The very nature of Middle Earth — how Tolkien's passion for the countryside inspired the Lord of the Rings
A Nature writer at heart, J. R. R. Tolkien drew on his love of the Malvern Hills and the surrounding
J.R.R. Tolkien: The life and times of the lord of the books
From a sentence born of an exhausting teaching job, J. R. R. Tolkien crafted a series of fantastical novels that,
The rare images of J.R.R. Tolkien which caused a sensation at auction
Pamela Chandler's portraits of the great J.R.R. Tolkien went under the hammer recently, almost doubling the estimate set by the
Credit: Breckon & Breckon
The Oxford house where JRR Tolkien wrote The Hobbit hits the market
JRR Tolkien moved to 20, Northmoor Road in 1930, six years after the property was built, and it is here
Credit: Getty
In Focus: The hand-drawn maps from which JRR Tolkien launched Middle-earth
'I wisely started with a map and made the story fit,' JRR Tolkien once wrote. A new exhibition in Oxford
-
Diamonds are everyone's best friend: The enduring appeal of one of Nature's sparkliest treasuresEvery diamond has a story to tell and each of us deserves to fall in love with one.
-
RHS Chelsea Flower Show: Everything you need to know, plus our top tips and tricksCountry Life editors and contributor share their tips and tricks for making the most of Chelsea.
-
London as you've never seen it — and as you'll never see it againThe East End of London has changed rapidly in recent years, but photographer Paul Trevor chronicled it from the 1970s to the 1990s. His images have been collected in a new book, Market Day.
-
A look inside Derek Jarman's Prospect CottageA new book by the photographer Gilbert McCarragher will give readers a first-look inside Derek Jarman's famous home on the shingle of Dungeness.
-
The rare images of J.R.R. Tolkien which caused a sensation at auctionPamela Chandler's portraits of the great J.R.R. Tolkien went under the hammer recently, almost doubling the estimate set by the auctioneers.
-
Anne Glenconner: How rehabilitating Princess Margaret made her a literary phenomenon on the cusp of her tenth decadeAnne Glenconner, the former lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret who has become a publishing phenomenon, speaks to Flora Watkins about finding fame late in life. Main photograph by Hal Shinnie.
-
Charades: An exclusive Rebus short story for Country Life at Christmas, by Ian RankinJohn Rebus finds the truth behind a festive parlour game in this short story, written exclusively for Country Life by Ian Rankin.
-
Jane Austen’s six most-famous novels, summed up in 10 words eachNovels in a nutshell.
-
Behind the names: The Austen characters you need to knowFeisty feminist heroines and dashing handsome heros.
